DAN BAIRD IS STILL SHAKIN' IT WILD

By Barry Gilbert
Of the Post-Dispatch

April 18, 2004

Dan Baird
"Out of Mothballs"
Jerkin' Crocus Records

 

Anybody remember the Georgia Satellites ("Keep Your Hands to Yourself")? How about Dan Baird's "Love Songs for the Hearing Impaired"? Anybody count Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' Rock 'n' Roll Caravan in 1987, with the Satellites and Del Fuegos, among their Top 10 concert experiences?

If you answered yes, then Dan Baird's "Out of Mothballs" CD is for you. Baird, frontman for the Georgia Satellites, has long championed rootsy, high-energy, three-chord, meat-and-potatoes rock, on solo projects and with the Yayhoos and Sofa Kings.

This collection rounds up demos and outtakes from about 1991-94. Some were recorded with the Satellites. Others were written and cut with Terry Anderson, who wrote the Satellites hit "Battleship Chains" and Baird's first solo single, "I Love You Period." Anderson is also a bandmate with Baird and Eric "Roscoe" Ambel in the Yayhoos.

There's nothing fancy here - and no ballads, either. Tracks include "Rock This Place," from a John Stamos movie called "Born to Ride"; a ra ucous cover of "Seventh Son" that owes more to Johnny Rivers than writer Willie Dixon; and a host of songs with co-conspirator Anderson that didn't make Baird's "Love Songs" (1991) or "Buffalo Nickel" (1996) CDs.

Highlights include "Shake It Wild," "Trouble Comin'," "Memphis" (no, not that one) and, well, most of them.

As a bonus, Baird wrote some amusing notes to go with each tune. Such as for "Lock and Key," on which Baird and Anderson channel the guitars of Keith Richards and Ron Wood: "Never heard of the Rolling Stones. I swear."

Available at www.villagerecords.com (913-631-4199) and www.bairddan.com.

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